Report: many employers not providing required workers comp coverage

As many as one in five workers in New York state should be covered by workers' compensation insurance, but their employers are not providing that coverage.

That's according to a new report from the Fiscal Policy Institute, a labor-oriented group which has offices in New York City and in Latham.

Comparing unemployment insurance and workers' comp rolls in New York, the institute determined that between 500,000 and 1 million New Yorkers may not be covered by workers' comp, as law says they should be. The group also estimated that, at about $1,000 for coverage per worker per year, unscrupulous employers may be evading premium payments of between $500 million and $1 billion a year.

The group blamed the lack of cohesive government oversight and regulation for the perceived evasion of workers' comp fraud. In New York, responsibility for making sure employers are paying premiums for workers is split between some of the insurers themselves and the state Workers' Compensation Board. There is no overall strategy that both sides follow to make sure compliance is widespread, the Fiscal Policy Institute said.

The timing of the report is intended to inject the issue of non-compliance into the debate in Albany over reforming the workers' compensation system. New Gov. Eliot Spitzer said reforms are one of the top priorities of his administration, and the state AFL-CIO and The Business Council of New York State Inc. have been involved in negotiations over changes. Spitzer said the state can lower the cost of the program to employers and also raise benefit levels for injured workers.

The Fiscal Policy Institute said Florida, California, New Jersey and Delaware have all gone after non-compliance with workers' comp premium payments aggressively. It and other groups argue that if the same payments and the same rules apply to all employers, the playing field for businesses will be leveler, with conscientious employers being able to compete better against those that were breaking the rules.

More details about workers' comp reforms could be revealed next Wednesday when Spitzer submits his first proposed state budget to the Legislature.